The experience:
The Burj Khalifa has got to be one of the most instagrammed landmarks in Dubai, and as an extension the whole of the UAE, both looking up and down.
I know I’ve done my fair share of ogling from various vantage points in and around the emirate, but recently, I finally got the birds-eye view - from 555 metres up - at sunrise.
Emaar Properties offers tourists and residents the opportunity to enjoy a 360-degree view of the city from the At the Top viewing platform, which is 124 floors up and takes a minute or so in the retro lift - it’s dark and there are flickering lights - to get to.
The lift travels at a speed of 36 kilometres per hour and can climb 10 metres per second.
It’s the highest outdoor observatory in the world, and at sunrise - which is the session I experience - it is such a brilliant way to see the city.
It was kind of odd arriving at the Dubai Mall before opening, but surprisingly there was quite a bustling crowd gathered at 6.30am on a Saturday morning in January, eager to ascend the tallest building in the world and bear witness to the sun as it peeps over the horizon.
It had been foggy for the week leading into my visit so I wasn’t entirely certain it would be clear, but thankfully the weather Gods smiled on me and I was able to see the sunrise over one of the most developing cities in the world.
Save for the people five-deep squeezing themselves into the limited window spaces, at the expense of those around them to get the perfect shot, this was an experience just as breathtaking as those you get at other observatories the world over.
What we loved:
The views of the Dubai Fountains and seeing all of emirate’s famous landmarks from so far up.
What we hated:
That people are so pushy and can’t just take a picture and step aside. This simply courtesy would allow other less pushy people to catch a glimpse of the view below.
The details:
Sunrise elevations start from 5:30am on Friday and Saturdays throughout winter. At no extra cost ticket holders get breakfast at The Café until 8am. Tickets, which cost Dh95 for children and Dh125 for adults, can be purchased from the starting point of At the Top, Burj Khalifa journey on the Lower Ground Floor of The Dubai Mall. For details call, 800 AT THE TOP (288 438 67) or online at http://www.burjkhalifa.ae or https://tickets.atthetop.ae/atthetop/Step0_BookingInfo.aspx
The writer was a guest of Emaar Properties.
mhealy@thenational.ae
